Karl — See http://www.coned.com/sales/business/bus_elec.htm for utility-offered savings for 'upgrading' utility-furnished DC service in the NYC area. I don't know how long the program is supposed to last, but I'll bet there are some DC elevators in older apartment buildings in Con Ed service territory.

About 10 years ago, an associate in meter-testing equipment design told me he had been contacted by the Con Ed metering department to make an AC-powered test set for DC-energy meters, for their aged test instrumentation employed lead-acid storage batteries and large resistive-heater load banks for tests, and lugging those in an out of basements was “inconvenient,” to say the least.

[Note that (likely long-existing) 2-phase AC service is still listed as available in Con Ed and PECO systems. It's interesting to note that General Electric shows 2ø 5-wire as one of the available forms for one of their microprocessor-based energy meters—model "kV".]




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 09-15-2003).]